Above: Wonder Woman and Superman return in "Atlantis." Photo ©Warner Home Video
Despite being a superhero mainstay
since the Golden Age of comics, Aquaman has largely been treated as a punch
line by the general public. There have
been efforts across several mediums to make him seem cooler, but he’s still
probably best known for his appearances on the “Super Friends” cartoon, where
his failure to be useful out of water made him a joke to older fans. The most recent attempts at revitalization
have come from the comics themselves, with superstar writer Geoff Johns trying
to redefine Aquaman as a noble, conflicted hero—something also attempted in
“Justice League: Throne of Atlantis,” the latest of the DC Animated Features.
Acting as a direct sequel to “Justice
League: War,” “Throne of Atlantis” finds Earth’s greatest heroes not yet
entirely onboard for the whole superhero team-up thing. However, an attack on a U.S. submarine and the
theft of its missiles puts the League on the trail to discovering Atlantis. The Lost City, as it turns out, is in the
midst of political turmoil, as Prince Orm (Sam Witwer) wants to attack the
surface world against the wishes of his mother, Queen Atalanna (Sierra Irwin). The queen hopes to bring peace to her city by
finding her illegitimate half-human son Arthur Curry (Matt Lanter) and naming
him as her successor. However, the
machinations of Orm and his ally, the mercenary Black Manta (Harry Lennix)
threaten the stability of both worlds.
The two biggest flaws in “Throne of Atlantis”
are its pacing and its characters. The
movie bounces between plot beats and action scenes with very little connective
tissue in between the two and the story suffers for it. When he’s not fighting against Atlantean
soldiers, Arthur just drifts through his hero’s journey with basic stock
reactions to the events around him (“All my life I’ve known I was different,”
“This is too weird for me,” etc.). It
doesn’t help that a romantic subplot involving Arthur’s bodyguard Mera (Sumalee
Montano) floats in the awkward space between “tacked on” and “underdeveloped.”
The villains don't acquit themselves
memorably either. Sam Witwer stuggles
mightily to turn Orm into a compelling villain on par with Tom Hiddleston’s
Loki, but there’s no (pardon the pun) depth to the prince—just the same pride
and anger we’ve in so many other royal big bads. His cohort doesn't fare well either; Black
Manta, one of Aquaman’s most dangerous and iconic foes, is here reduced to a
yes man (and one whose ulterior motives are revealed too late in the game to be
at all interesting).
“Throne of Atlantis” does at least
develop the rest of its ensemble in intriguing ways. Here, Superman (Jerry O’Connell) and Wonder
Woman (Rosario Dawson) start dating (yes, I’m still opposed to their relationship
on principle, but I’ll admit that they're engaging); Cyborg (Shemar Moore)
struggles to hold onto his humanity amidst his countless upgrades; and Batman
(Jason O’Mara) and Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) prolong their rivalry, adding
some inconsequential but undeniably zesty jabs to the proceedings.
I can’t say the same for the film’s
animation and action. Yes, Phil
Bourassa’s character designs are still visually striking, but the animators of
“Throne of Atlantis” sometimes forget to include proper facial expressions,
leading to awkward moments like the scene where Arthur and Mera stare
impassively upon hearing that a tidal wave is about to obliterate hundreds of
people. The action scenes, meanwhile,
are tight-paced and well-photographed by a not-too-distracting shaky cam, but
are painfully inconsistent (Atlanteans can brush off machine gun fire but are
knocked out by a guy with a sledgehammer?).
These bumps in the road make the movie
a weak link in the DC animated lineup. “Throne
of Atlantis” is far from the studio’s best outputs—it’s too fast-paced, too
underdeveloped, and too resistant to actually focusing on its purported main
character. In other words, if you’re
seeking a great Aquaman story, I’d recommend Geoff Johns’s run from “The New 52,”
or maybe waiting to see what Jason Momoa brings to the table in August of 2018.
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